Inside Houston's successful strategy to reduce homelessness

A lot of bad luck led 62-year-old Army veteran Julie Blow to homelessness – a serious kidney issues, a fall that cost her the sight in one eye, two surgeries. Blow couldn't work, and ran out of money.

And now? She has an apartment; brand-new furniture donated by a local retailer; and a TV. The 320-sq.-ft. studio is nothing fancy, but for Blow, it's a luxury after the tent where she had been living. "I feel like a teenager, I am that happy!" she said. "You know, before all the stuff happens to you in life and you get jaded? I feel like a teenager!"

For Houston, it's one more piece of evidence that its strategy for solving its homelessness problem works. Kelly Young, who heads Houston's Coalition for the Homeless, says it's a model that the rest of the nation should look at and follow. "We were one of the worst in the nation to begin with, in 2011, 2012," Young said. "And now, we're considered one of the best."